Are You a Penguin?

Are You a Penguin? - Page Text Content

BC: Are You a Penguin?

FC: Are You a Penguin? By: Mary Kate Blakeman

1: Q. Are You a Penguin? A. If you are, your parents travel miles across sheets of ice and snow in the freezing Antarctic wind to meet each other. They sing a song to make sure they are right for each other before they fall in love.

2: Q. Are You a Penguin? A. If you are your mom travels back miles to the ocean to look for food for you.

3: She won’t be back until you are born so she carefully passes you to your dad so he can keep you warm in a pouch until you hatch from your egg.

4: Q. Are You a Penguin? A. If you are, your dad huddles with hundreds of other penguins to protect you from the blizzards and icy winds. He balances you on his feet and goes without eating for 3 months. CRACK CRACK! You have an egg tooth that helps you crack out of your shell. It takes you three days. You do not have any brothers or sisters.

6: Q. Are You a Penguin? A. If you are, you are covered with feathers called down. As you grow and molt, you will lose these feathers and get new ones. You need feathers to keep you warm.

7: Q. Are You a Penguin? A. If you are, your dad feeds you a milky substance until your mom returns from the ocean. When she arrives, she regurgitates all the food she has eaten into your mouth to help you grow. When you get bigger, you will hunt on your own. But for now, your parents take turns traveling back and forth to feed you and themselves.

8: Q. Are You a Penguin? A. If you are, you have spines on your tongue to help you hold your slippery food in your mouth.

9: You dine on fish, squid, crabs, and krill. Now you know how to dive into the sea and use your excellent sight to find your prey. You use your wings as flippers to help you swim fast! After you find it, you chase it and swallow it whole.

10: Q. Are you a penguin? A. If you are a penguin you have a lot of predators. Be careful of killer whales and sharks. Your worst enemy is a leopard seal. You need to swim fast to escape this predator.

11: Camouflage your white belly with the sunny water and your black back with the dark top of the water. To be safe you need to leap and slide up on the ice!

12: Q. Are you a penguin? A. You don’t hatch from an egg. You don’t have feathers to keep you warm. You don’t swim in the water to hunt for food. Leopard seals are not your enemies. You are a human!

13: Created for Class 3-304. Inspired by the Mentor Text, Are You a Snail?